Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to touch screen based user interfaces, and more specifically to facilitating users to enter values into multiple fields of a form using touch screens.
Related Art
Touch screens respond to touch operations (e.g., touch/tap, drag, swipe, pinch) of users using one or more of fingers, stylus, etc., and facilitates user interfaces with applications based on the touch operations, as is well known in the relevant arts.
There is often a need for users to fill forms. Forms are provided for purposes such as specifying metadata for content files, searching for desired files using metadata, classification of files, etc., as is also well known in the relevant arts.
A form contains multiple fields and the user is normally expected to enter values (text, number, combination of text/numbers, etc.) corresponding to respective fields. Each field may be viewed as containing an associated label (typically identifying or explaining the nature of value to be entered) and a location on the displayed form to enter/input the corresponding value.
Challenges are often presented while a user enters values into fields of a form displayed on touch screens. For example, small touch screens may be provided associated with portable computing devices and it may be challenging for users to select individual ones of the fields and enter corresponding values. Additional challenges are presented when fields are provided on touch screens using facilities such as drop down menus, etc., at least due to the availability of limited space on the small touch screens.
It is generally desirable that the user interface be simplified for users of touch screen based computing devices.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.